Spring finally arrived but Tech Trends has been closeted indoors testing and reviewing all sorts of cool gadgets and thingamabobs for you lucky readers!

Sphero Mini

The Sphero Mini follows in the line of the original Sphero, Sprk+ and the popular Sphero BB-8. The new Mini takes much of what its previous models so successful and shrinks it down to a smaller – and more economical – package.

Sphero Mini packs tons of fun into a tiny, app-enabled robotic ball. drive, play games, learn to code, and more.

The new Mini takes much of what its previous models so successful and shrinks it down to a smaller - and more economical - package
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Now the size of a snooker ball the Sphero Mini comes in a range of robust-coloured shells which open to reveal its components within (a gyroscope and accelerator). A few fun accessories are also enclosed in the package – including half a dozen colourful mini skittles and some cones so you can layout your own course and steer your Mini through it.

Initially, a little slow to charge -especially if you have children eager to play – the app intel is easy to download and boot up and once launched is quick to get going with a colourful simple interface which is very child-friendly and easy to navigate.

Packed with teeny tiny tech such as a gyroscope, accelerometer, and LED lights and almost an hour of play time, Sphero Mini is the next big thing.

The app intel is easy to download and boot up and once launched is quick to get going with a colourful simple interface which is very child-friendly and easy to navigate
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In the app you can choose between a variety of control methods: standard joystick, tilt control, slingshot and face driving – which although may prove fun for younger players is actually quite a frustrating experience. Apart from the standard tech toy drive modes, there are also a few arcade style games tucked within the app wherein you can use the Sphero as a controller. They’re a fun little distraction but compared to what kids can play on their phones nowadays they won’t amuse them for long.

Drive Mini using different modes with the Sphero Mini app, or just by using your lovely mug. This Ball is also a Video Game controller! Use Mini as a controller to shoot your way through space, race through a tunnel, or to destroy a polygon of bricks.

The app is a great introduction to the basics of programming and with a simple drag and drop approach even younger players can make their own programs or adapt provided templates
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But it’s the Sphero Edu coding app that raises this tech toy above that of your average remote control car. The app is a great introduction to the basics of programming and with a simple drag and drop approach even younger players can make their own programs or adapt provided templates. Once you’ve become familiar with the paths and blocks that represent code you can then write your own JavaScript text programs.

Program the Mini with Javascript. If you’re feeling extra clever, download the Sphero Edu app and program your robot using JavaScript. The SPRK+ robot was built for programming. What’s the difference?

Overall the Sphero Mini is a solid reasonably priced tech toy
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Overall the Sphero Mini is a solid reasonably priced tech toy. In some ways, it suffers from the general failure of many of the interactive educational bots in that you really have to encourage the child to explore its capabilities or they will just become an expensive remote control car and have a very limited replay value. Given proper guidance, however – if you have the patience – they are a great way to encourage a basic grasp of coding.

RRP: $49.00

Review by Ashley Thorpe, Animator & Filmmaker at Carrion Films and Film & Games Correspondent at Tech Trends. Follow him on Twitter @CarrionScreamin

Dell Visor Windows MR Headset

The first thing that hit me when I popped on the Dell Visor was its weightless comfort. It is similar in design to the PS4 VR headset and puts the weight of the device on the top of your head but is just a bit easier to get used to wearing and less front-heavy.

The first thing that hit me when I popped on the Dell Visor was its weightless comfort
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After trying some VR headsets that clamp the screen onto the front of your face with straps I have been left in physical pain (especially around the nose and ears) and so have become a connoisseur of VR comfort (or lack thereof) and the Dell design gets top marks.  Read the full review here.

Carlton AR Children’s Books

Carlton Books are at the forefront of early stage, educational AR books and I can’t think of a better use for mobile AR tech. Visually exciting and interactive technology paired with real-world play and learning should draw kids into new subjects and areas of study in a new and exciting way. It is important to note how early stage this technology is but Carlton have thrown themselves behind AR with exciting results.

Carlton Books are at the forefront of early stage, educational AR books and I can’t think of a better use for mobile AR tech
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It is important to note how early stage this technology is but Carlton have thrown themselves behind AR with exciting results
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Last year I was very impressed with their more adult-focused Alien: Augmented Reality Survival Manual, it had some very engaging AR content and is still my benchmark for this hybrid publishing format, so I was keen to try out this new series of educational AR books Tech Trends picked up at the 2018 London Book Fair. I was particularly keen to see how easy they made the process of linking the technology, the AR content and the physical books as the interaction between paper and digital needs to be seamless, immersing the reader (or user?) in the content with minimal UI friction.

First up was iExplore Bugs, off the bat this should be good as who doesn’t love creepy crawlies! The first page had clear instructions showing you how to download the app and use it. The App icon and the printed AR activation symbols were the same, making it really clear how it worked but there was no printed QR code to take you straight to the app in the iOS or Android app stores, why not? I had to open the app store and search for the app, luckily the printed instruction had the correct app name so this was not too hard but it should have been much easier.

Flying the Dragons around the room was serious fun and the quality or the AR was excellent
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After activating the AR there was a clear prompt on what to do next, look through the phone's camera and point it at the app symbol on each page to bring the bug to life
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The app is pretty large and took a while to download and install but when opened offered a taste of what was to come with a friendly animated cricket, instructions and links to other apps in the publisher series. After activating the AR there was a clear prompt on what to do next, look through the phone’s camera and point it at the app symbol on each page to bring the bug to life. My Galaxy S8 would not focus the camera inside the app and so detecting the symbol was a bit tricky, everything was permanently out of focus so the camera was not quick to activate the AR. However when it popped up the AR quality was great and the in-app bug controller, information and mini test were well designed and fun to use. The only niggle was the juddery bugs, when they were standing on the page they juddered constantly as the app calculated the ground level. This was a bit distracting but when the bugs took off and flew around the room under my control it improved a lot. This was serious fun and the quality or the AR Dragons was excellent.

The flying creatures got even better in Dragons Come to Life (so cool) where the Dragons from Dreamworks’ How to Train Your Dragon leap off the page and let you fly them around the room. The book’s instructions and app were just as clear and the AR dragons and little human characters were really very cool. You could also swat up on the Dragon’s special powers and its Top Trumps style, abilities followed by a little knowledge test. Again the S8 camera would not focus in the app so it failed completely to activate some of the dragons, even in very bright light, quite annoying.

Carlton Books have done a really good job here and the books and apps are fun to use and very reasonably priced considering the background work this AR tech requires
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All in all Carlton Books have done a really good job here and the books and apps are fun to use and very reasonably priced considering the background work this AR tech requires. The books absolutely must have printed QR codes to take you to the right app or Carlton need to issue one app that works across all their books in a series. The friction of looking for the right app to go with the right book is simply unnecessary and easily fixed. The in-app camera failing to focus was a big issue but an app update should fix this and my only other minor niggle is the visuals and text in the books, particularly the covers. They are overselling the concept with too many images and too many mixed up fonts and bold graphics, it all looks too busy and hectic on the page. However, with publishers like Carlton pushing the Print & AR format I can see other publishers getting onboard but for now, none match the quality on show here from Carlton.

RRP: Individual books £9.99 and the Carlton AR range is here.

Aukey Wireless Bluetooth Speaker

If asked to sum up Aukey’s products I would have to say ‘best bang for your buck’ is the phrase that comes to mind. They are invariably much better quality than the price suggests, solidly built, practical and reliable. In the case of this 16W, SK-S1 wireless Bluetooth speaker I can also add, attractive.

The SK-S1 is surprisingly solid for its size. When you first pick it up gives off a feeling of quality and confidence, and the sound is very good
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There are some wacky and expensive looking portable speakers out there but this one just looks smart and modern, blending into my office, kitchen and garden. It is also surprisingly solid for its small size and when you first pick it up gives off a feeling of quality and confidence. The curved metal grills and the brushed steel top ooze a stylish simplicity and the silicone base promises to keep it clinging to any surface. Read the full review here.

ZeroWater Filter and TDS Meter

This 12-cup water filter jug from ZeroWater looks much like every other water filter out there but what makes it a more high-tech drinking solution is its patented, 5-stage Ion Exchange Filtration system, which removes virtually all dissolved solids from your water. These solids may include minerals, salts, metals, chemicals and runoff. Mmmm runoff, my favourite non-specific dissolved solid!

It removes virtually all dissolved solids from your water. These solids may include minerals, salts, metals, chemicals and runoff. Mmmm runoff, my favourite non-specific dissolved solid!
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The ZeroWater filter is also the first in its class to benefit from a sealed lid and reservoir, which allows filtered water to be poured while water, which hasn’t yet been, filtered remains in the reservoir. This adds a further 2 cups of capacity to the 10 cups of filtered water in the jug. It also features a very cool one-handed, pull and pour button spout for easy pouring from the fridge or for filling bottles. Four additional stages of water filtration ensure larger particles and other impurities are removed.

Well, I used the laboratory-grade Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) meter provided on our unfiltered tap water and got a reading of 078. I then filled up the jug and measured the filtered water and… dum dum duuuum! Got a reading of 000. So this seems to do a fine job of removing those unpleasant impurities from your water, and that can only be a good thing. Our water normally tastes fine if a little chloriney and after filtering through the ZeroWater tasted very different. It’s difficult to describe the taste but it is not unpleasant and definitely better than straight out of the tap.

I used the laboratory-grade Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) meter provided on our unfiltered tap water and got a reading of 078. I then filled up the jug and measured the filtered water and got a reading of 000
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• Certified* to reduce Lead, Chromium, & Mercury
• Premium 5-Stage Dual-Ion Exchange filtration system
• Ion-Exchange system that removes virtually all dissolved solids in your water
• The FDA requires the TDS level in PURIFIED bottled water to reach 000-010ppm. ZeroWater is the only filter in its class to achieve this level.

RRP: £39.99

Dell Precision 7720 VR-Ready Mobile Workstation

It was love at first sight when I unpacked the top spec Dell Precision 7720 VR-Ready Mobile Workstation last week. Cupid’s bow twanged and his poison arrow thudded deep into the meat of my heart, I was a gonna. She was over £7k of laptop and I was a drooling geek, palms sweaty at the prospect of an Intel Xeon E3-1535M v6 server processor, Nvidia Quadro P5000 and a Samsung SM961 M.2 SSD. My shaking hands slowly peeled off her cardboard clothes, plugged her straight into the mains and turned myself on So how was it? Well, it was sweet while it lasted but she soon left me and drove away with the same cheeky UPS driver! Read the full review here.

Aukey Powered USB 3.0 Hub

Like Apple, PC motherboard makers seem to be on a crusade to limit external connections. I suspect this might be due to the variety of new superspeed connections users expect every board to have pushing out the more practical and proven connections such as USB 3. I have never had the need for an expansion card or hub like this one from Aukey before but with only six USB 3 ports on my PC (four on the rear and two on the front) and a wealth of USB dongles and devices I was struggling. Sure I tried a few small two or three port extenders that did the job but a mains powered, six-port hub like this provided a much-needed connectivity boost.

I have never had the need for an expansion card or hub like this one from Aukey before but with only six USB 3 ports on my PC and a wealth of USB dongles and devices I was struggling
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The hub adds six SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports to your laptop or desktop computer, plus Aukey threw in one Smart Quick-Charging Aipower port and a Gigabit Ethernet port capable of accessing superfast network speeds of up to 1000Mbps. With the palm-size and lightweight design the CB-H17 Powered USB hub retains high-speed access to all of your devices without overloading your pocket or desktop. With USB data transfer rates of up to 5Gbps, you’ll be able to sync files and interact with your Mac or PC more efficiently than ever.

This hub adds six SuperSpeed USB 3.0 ports to your computer, plus one Smart Quick-Charging Aipower port and a Gigabit Ethernet port capable of accessing superfast network speeds
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This is a very robust little hub from Aukey and is a worthy addition to your home computer, you won't know how you survived without one
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Powered by a 12V/3A mains adapter you can use your all external USB hard drives and even charge your smartphone or tablet when your computer is turned off (except for the iOS system), that could come in pretty handy! This is a very robust little hub and is a worthy addition to your home computer, you won’t know how you survived without one.

• Compact and slim design effectively saves your desk space and expands your connectivity
• One 2.4A output smart charging port provides full-speed and sufficient powers to charge all Apple and Android Smartphone, tablets and other USB charged devices
• The Ethernet port supports 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet. Support WinXP/ 7/ 8/ 10, Linux, Mac OS
• Package Contents: AUKEY CB-H17 Powered USB Hub, 3.3ft USB Cable, 12V/3A Power Adapter, User Manual, 24 Month Warranty Card

RRP: £19.99 reduced from £24.99 on Amazon UK

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post April 2018 Tech Trends Product Reviews appeared first on Tech Trends.

Like Deckard in Blade Runner; I am in love with a machine and I just don’t care!

It was love at first sight when I unpacked the top spec Dell Precision 7720 last week. Cupid’s bow twanged and his poison arrow thudded deep into the meat of my heart, I was a gonna. She was over £7k of laptop and I was a drooling geek, palms sweaty at the prospect of an Intel Xeon E3-1535M v6 server processor, Nvidia Quadro P5000 and a Samsung SM961 M.2 SSD. My shaking hands slowly peeled off her cardboard clothes, plugged her straight into the mains and turned myself on 😉 So how was it? Well, it was sweet while it lasted but she soon left me and drove away with the same cheeky UPS driver!

It was love at first sight when I unpacked the top spec Dell Precision 7720 last week. Cupid’s bow twanged and his poison arrow thudded deep into the meat of my heart, I was a gonna
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Check out the Specs below:

• Windows 10 Professional (x64)
• 17.3″ UHD IPS Narrow Border (3840×2160) Wide View with Web Camera and Mic
• Intel Xeon E3-1545M v5 (Quad Core Xeon 2.90GHz, 3.80GHz Turbo, 8MB 45W, w/Iris Pro Graphics P580)
• 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD Class 40 MPWS
• 64GB, 4x16GB, 2400MHz DDR4 Non-ECC SDRAM
• NVIDIA Quadro P5000 w/16GB GDDR5 + Onboard Intel(R) HD Graphics P630
• Palm Rest with touch fingerprint reader, smart card and NFC
• 6 Cell (91 Whr) Long Life Cycle Lithium Ion Polymer Battery

It is large and heavy but still, much more portable and versatile than a PC tower while every bit as powerful
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Obviously, any laptop packing this kind of heat is going to be rather big and not a ‘pop in your bag and take to a meeting’ kind of computer:

Height: (front) 1.12″ (28.5mm) Height: (rear) 1.36″ (34.49mm) | 2. Width: 16.42″ (417.04mm) | 3. Depth: 11.08″ (281.44mm) Weight: (starts at) 7.55lbs (3.42kg) You can see that it is large and heavy but still, much more portable and versatile than a PC tower while every bit as powerful. Should you take it out and about though, the soft-touch, tough-looking carbon fibre shell is very sturdy and as Dell claims,

The brilliantly designed chassis is subjected to and passes MIL-STD 810G testing, ensuring durability and reliability for wherever your job takes you.

Anyone spending this much on a Laptop will be using some serious software for the kind of creative jobs that make the UltraSharp UHD (3840×2160) screen on my test unit an essential option, but for when 4K is not enough there is an HDMI 1.4 out and mini DisplayPort 1.4 out that supports third-party screens of up to 8K!

Anyone spending this much on a Laptop will be using some serious software for the kind of creative jobs that make the Ultra Sharp UHD (3840x2160) screen on my test unit an essential option
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The keyboard is really quite nice to use, with a pleasingly soft key feel and minimal travel, but I don’t think it will see much action as this is not a machine for writing. Disappointingly the touchpad is a miserable flash back to the 90’s and is basically useless, truly awful! However this would only be a real issue if users planned to move the 7720 around like a notebook on a daily basis, but it’s just not that kind of machine. Creative power users working on video, graphics or VR dev jobs will most probably plug in a mouse or pen and tablet for controlled cursor control and happily bypass the build-in touchpad altogether.

As you would expect on a gargantuan beast like the 7720 connectivity is excellent. Four USB 3.0 A ports with PowerShare technology for charging peripherals, one super fast Thunderbolt 3 port and a Gigabit Ethernet socket. 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth 4.2 will get you further connected and a side-mounted SD/SDHC/SDXC UHS-II port will gobble up all your digital media. The 7720 also sports dual, integrated, noise-cancelling, digital array microphones, and stereo speakers powered by Waves MaxxAudio Pro plus has a good old headphone jack to boot!

Four USB 3.0 A ports with PowerShare technology, one super fast Thunderbolt 3 port and a Gigabit Ethernet socket, plus an SDXC UHS-II port, 802.11ac dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.2 will get you connected
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As usual, there are a few bundled pieces of software, some useless like Candy Crush Soda Saga (why?!) but the Dell Optimizer 4.0 app might actually be one of the rare useful ones.

The Dell Precision Optimizer 4.0 takes the guesswork out of customizing settings and automatically adjusts them. It automatically tunes your workstation to run the most popular Independent Software Vendor (ISV) applications at the fastest speeds possible for the fastest results. Featuring enterprise smart alerts for processor, storage, memory, and graphics utilization all in an elegant, new UI.

Seven hours, real-world battery life is a very useful feature and the 7720 lasted longer than any other workstation-level laptop I have used
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When not on mains power the 6 Cell (91 Whr) Long Life Cycle Lithium Ion Polymer Battery kept me going for a solid seven hours of video editing and a little light rendering. This is a very useful feature and the 7720 lasted longer than any other workstation level laptop I have used. I would normally expect no more than four hours of serious use on battery power, but I’d recommend staying glued to the mains for any serious rendering as the 7720 is a real monster and gets pretty hot under load. As workstation classification demands cooling is taken seriously and Dell have done a good job, the fans are not too loud and are quite effective at cooling it down during render-heavy tasks.

Dell’s patented 5th generation dual cooling fans provide a brilliant approach to thermal cooling, taking performance and comfort to levels never before seen on a task-intensive laptop. No matter how high-powered your project, your processing and graphical applications will work within turbo frequencies and your system will stay cool.

Security is another plus point for the 7720 and it comes as standard with a smart card reader with TMP encryption but an optional fingerprint reader and NFC sensor offer more options for keeping international spooks out of your machine. I didn’t test the fingerprint reader on my sample but it looks the business and is placed nicely, out of the way in the right corner.

Security is another plus point for the 7720 and it comes as standard with a smart card reader with TMP encryption but an optional fingerprint reader and NFC sensor offer more options for keeping international spooks out
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VR is our specialist area here at Tech Trends so I was very happy to see the 7720 claims to be VR-ready. That is quite a claim so I plugged in Dell’s own excellent Windows Mixed Reality Visor Headset, hooked up the accompanying Bluetooth handsets and gave it a spin. I was very impressed and after Windows updated a few of its MR components I was straight into the Cliff House, teleporting around, using apps and having fun. There was no lag or judder and the hand controls were super fast. Yes, I was using the top spec version of the 7720 and am sure that less well-speced versions might not be as slick with VR so users would need to make sure they choose the appropriate VR-capable options for maximum graphics and processor power.

I was very impressed and after Windows updated a few of its MR components I was straight into VR, standing in the Cliff House, teleporting around, using apps and having fun
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Get the best of work and play. Dell’s first VR-ready mobile workstation is optimized for gaming and content creation in addition to all your mainstream professional ISV applications. It’s so powerful it can handle complex VR work flows—so you can game or create in immersive virtual reality.

The Nvidia Quadro P5000 is an awesome GPU built on NVIDIA Pascal GPU technology and with 2560 CUDA Cores and 16 GB GDDR5 memory, it does an incredible job with VR and pretty much any resource-heavy, VR, 3D graphics or 4K video editing jobs you throw at it. It gave a smooth and faultless user experience and lent its considerable muscle to CUDA compatible applications.

The Nvidia Quadro P5000 is an awesome GPU with 2560 CUDA Cores and 16 GB GDDR5 memory. It does an incredible job with VR, giving a smooth and faultless experience and lent its considerable muscle to CUDA compatible applications
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Now we come to the negative, as yes, there was one thing that caused me serious annoyance with the 7720. It was slow. What!! I hear you scream, how can a machine with specs like these be slow? Well, I wondered this too, and can only place the blame on the slow speed, low cost, Samsung M.2 SSD and its drivers. Windows 10 was just sluggish, opening browsers, folders and utilities took two to three seconds and I felt like I was wading through treacle.

Try as I could, I couldn’t find newer M.2 drivers online to test my theory so I can’t really be sure what the problem was and the bundled Dell Precision Optimizer 4.0 was no help. This issue didn’t totally undermine the power and usability of the 7720 and didn’t affect VR at all but irritated me to the point of screaming at it while I waited for new windows to open and Win10 to do basic tasks. I am sure a service call to Dell and some fiddling around with drivers would fix this but for £7k+ I expected lightning speed out of the box and I didn’t get it. I am sure this is just a glitch so can’t hold it against the 7720 which overall is an incredible workstation and well worth the price tag for creative professionals working in cutting-edge Graphics, Video or VR.

RRP: £7263 on Dell UK

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Product Review: Dell Precision 7720 Mobile Workstation appeared first on Tech Trends.

The Visor is Dell’s offering to the stable of Windows Mixed Reality Headsets but is it a thoroughbred or a nag?

The first thing that hit me when I popped on the Dell Visor was its weightless comfort. It is similar in design to the PS4 VR headset and puts the weight of the device on the top of your head but is just a bit easier to get used to wearing and less front-heavy. After trying some VR headsets that clamp the screen onto the front of your face with straps I have been left in physical pain (specially around the nose and ears) and so have become a connoisseur of VR comfort (or lack thereof) and the Dell design gets top marks. I found concerns about light leaks to be irrelevant and not once was it an issue for me.

After an hour I felt no ill effects, and after three more hours can safely say I would wear this all day! And when you take into account the convenient flip-up display, for those moments when you want a slurp of tea or a quick biscuit, Tech Trends can happily give this the comfort stamp of approval.

I would wear this all day and when you take into account the flip-up display, for those moments when you want a slurp of tea or a quick biscuit, Tech Trends can happily give this the comfort stamp of approval
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It is also a good-looking bit of kit and the design puts the focus on the two inside-out tracking cameras built into the sides of the headset. This promising tech tracks the area around you and monitors how it changes as you move rather than tracking the position of the headset in relation to external sensors like most of the HMD competition does.

Inside-out tracking cameras tracks the area around you and monitors how it changes as you move rather than tracking the position of the headset in relation to external sensors like the HMD competition does
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The Visor also contains a set of gyroscopic sensors, an accelerometer and a magnetometer that all help monitor your position in relation to surrounding objects, very clever. The cameras sit a little further apart than your eyes on the front of the HMD and make you look a bit like a confused Pixar robot or a happy manta ray. Importantly the visor has dual 1440 x 1440px screens that run at 90 Hz and with a pixel density of 706ppi are a step up in resolution from the Rift and Vive.

The hand controllers are made of cheap looking plastic and with little contouring for the hands so style-wise they let down the package a bit
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The hand controllers are a bit less attractive, made of cheap looking plastic and with little contouring for the hands. Each boasts a touchpad, thumb joystick, trigger and three other buttons, one of which is a Windows button! Very old school but the Visor is, of course, a Windows Mixed Reality device. More on the hand controllers later but style wise they do let down the package a bit.

Yes, the Visor can be used with a variety of apps and services such as SteamVR but as an official Windows Mixed Reality Headset, we will limit this review to the hardware and its capabilities on that platform. Set up in Windows 10 was a doddle, easily one of the most misery free VR setups I have done yet but please note you do need to ensure your Win10 machine is current with the latest Microsoft MR capable updates or it simply won’t work.

Set up in Windows 10 was a doddle, easily one of the most misery free VR setups I have done yet
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My laptop was up to date but still downloaded and installed some new bits and bobs when I first plugged it in so make sure you are online for the setup. After that, the built-in Windows Mixed Reality program whizzed me through the rest of the process and dumped me into VR with a silky-voiced lady telling me what was happening and running me through a few basic functions before leaving me to mess about on my own.

Standing in the Cliff House (Microsoft’s VR version of a universal desktop) I got used to the tools and functions on offer and was pleasantly surprised that the flimsy-looking hand controllers worked as well as any other I had used. After teleporting around, popping in and out of a few apps and a quick training session to be a Halo Master Chief I couldn’t fault them. They’re not super-comfortable, and getting to all the buttons is a bit of a faff, but that’s a problem all such controllers have, and these had a nice weight and worked perfectly.

Standing in the Cliff House I got used to the tools and functions on offer and was pleasantly surprised that the flimsy looking Dell Visor Hand Controllers worked as well as any other I had used
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The image quality was not really a clear advance over the competition I have tried but was very comfortable to use and I had no eye strain or dizziness after a long session
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The image quality was not really a clear advance over the competition I have tried but was very comfortable to use and I had no eye strain or dizziness after a long session. When the next gen of much higher resolution, fast-refreshing screens become available, immersive experiences will really make an impact on the public who quite rightly have been a little underwhelmed by what is on offer today. No matter how good the game or the environment you are immersed in, poor screen quality holds the user back from buying into the whole thing. The Visor has good screens and among the most comfortable to use for long periods that I have tested so no actual complaints, for once!

The Visor has good screens and among the most comfortable to use for long periods that I have tested so no actual complaints, for once!
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The Visor doesn’t have built-in headphones which is a shame
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The Visor doesn’t have built-in headphones which is a shame as it would make putting it on and off a bit easier but it’s not a huge deal for me, the short cables are annoying though. If you are connected to a laptop on a desk and are seated it works OK but the usable area – the area for you to walk around in while hooked up to the computer – is only about 2.5 meters square and if you are plugged into the back of a PC that gets a bit smaller as the cable goes under the desk and round the back of the PC. I can’t see why they are so short and that is probably the worst thing about this kit. One extra meter of cable wouldn’t have cost much and would have reduced VR friction massively.

I can’t understand why the cables are so short and this is probably the worst thing about this kit
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Expected the hand controllers to talk straight to the headset via Bluetooth but found that they actually need to connect to your computer
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Another oddity that will present a problem for users with less advanced computers is the lack of a Bluetooth adaptor in the headset. I expected the hand controllers to talk straight to the headset via Bluetooth but found that they actually need to connect to your computer and if you don’t have Bluetooth built into your laptop or PC then you will need an adaptor.

Coming in at £100ish cheaper than the Rift and less than half the price of the Vive, Dell is offering a very good product at the right price
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If this is a cost saving issue for Dell then it becomes a cost boosting issue for users who have to shell out for a more advanced computer or a separate Bluetooth adaptor, not great. However, it works perfectly when set up in Win10 but note that the Bluetooth pairing buttons are hidden under the handset’s battery covers so you will only want to pair them once as it is a bit fiddly.

I found the Dell Visor to be simple, comfortable and in terms of functionality, only a few steps behind the big boys Oculus and HTC and then only really in terms of in-game response times, it is a little slower
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All in all, I found the Dell Visor to be simple, comfortable and in terms of functionality, only a few steps behind the big boys Oculus and HTC and then only really in terms of in-game response times, it is a little slower. As a low-cost entry point into the world of Windows Mixed Reality, and VR in general, it is excellent. Coming in at £100ish cheaper than the Rift (here in the UK) and less than half the price of the Vive, Dell is offering a very good product at the right price, I want one.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Product Review: Dell Visor Windows MR Headset appeared first on Tech Trends.

Bett 2018 brought 850 leading EdTech companies, 103 new start-ups and over 34,700 attendees from 131 countries together at the ExCel London
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Last week Bett 2018 brought 850 leading EdTech companies, 103 new start-ups and over 34,700 attendees from 131 countries together at the ExCel London to celebrate education, find inspiration and discuss the role technology plays in enabling all educators and learners to thrive. Tech Trends hooked up with two key innovators, Microsoft Education and Dell EMC to see what that future looks like.

Dell asked 1000 British parents with children in primary and secondary education about their thoughts on how technology is used in schools
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I know that very little I was taught at school is of any practical use to me in my working life, and a new piece of research from Dell highlights parents’ concerns that their children aren’t being prepared for the technological future they face. Dell asked 1000 British parents with children in primary and secondary education about their thoughts on how technology is used in schools to teach their children and came up with some striking results.

• 93% of parents state that it’s vital for their child to have a positive experience with technology for their career and job prospects
• Despite 92% of parents believing schools need to offer lessons that develop their kids’ IT skills, more than a third (38%) report their kids have access to better technology at home than they do in class
• Other uses of IT parents would like to see include: data analysis for science subjects (31%) and the development of PowerPoints for class presentations (27%)

It’s essential that schools understand the importance of integrating technology into all aspects of student learning so that it doesn’t end up a siloed discipline targeted at those already interested in IT. Schools need to encourage students to engage with technology from a young age and develop core skills to prepare them for further education, giving them a head start in the world of work,” explained Richard Rawcliffe, Vice President, Public Sector, DellEMC UK and Ireland

Clearly, parents realise that the work environment has evolved hugely since they were at school. There is widespread acknowledgement that new skills need to be taught and new forms of tech-based learning developed to equip their children to succeed in the digital age. There are many tools that can help students along the way to gain them access to the jobs of the future: From coding kits to custom dissertation writing services, the classroom of today is vastly different from what it used to be for our parent’s generation, and that change will only continue to accelerate exponentially. Chatting with John Lyons, Dell’s Director of Marketing and Product Development at Dell Education it was clear that those parents are the driving force behind the implementation of new tech in US & UK classrooms.

A lot of parents decisions (on school selection) are based on, do you deploy student devices, what type of devices, can you teach with them or do you just hand them out? The hardest part for teachers is they are now walking into a teaching environment where they have students sitting there with their ChromeBooks and Windows devices and they’re not trained to actually deliver a curriculum based on that technology. So we have to engage our professional learning and services teams to help them and it’s not something you can teach over a weekend, it takes time.

Schools need to integrate technology into all aspects of student learning so that it doesn’t end up a siloed discipline targeted at those already interested in IT
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This makes sense as any new tech-based classroom and curriculum will need well-trained teachers to deliver it and we are not just talking about IT teachers; parents clearly want technology to be a learning tool in all subject areas.

• Over a quarter (26%) admitting they are concerned IT is primarily taught as a separate subject rather than being embedded into all lessons
• Just under half of the parents (48%) would like their kids to use technology to research all subjects
• 45% who would like IT used for every-day coursework
• 39% of parents stating they would like to see their children use technology within classes such as Coding Clubs

Teachers are now walking into a classroom where students are sitting there with their ChromeBooks and Windows devices, and they’re not trained to actually deliver a curriculum based on that technology
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Parents are clearly asking for a total revolution in education here, not just throwing a few more computers into classrooms, but fully embracing what technology can offer children and our society. They want to see the evolution of the curriculum and teaching methods to advance the very systems and processes of education as we understand it. After all, isn’t education supposed to give our children the skills they will need in their lives? As key suppliers of technology to schools Dell are very aware of the need to continue advancing their products and work closely with partners such a Microsoft to ensure they supply those classrooms with the tech they need.

Ultimately our goal is to allow children to use technology so that when they graduate from school they are equiped to deal with University, real life and the workplace. Explains John Lyons. Using History as a pilot for the future, an example of where technologies including AR and VR could integrate into a History lesson, to put them in the world of that History lesson, put them in the actual environment of the people they are studying, living it in a VR session. The challenge is we don’t know what the right configuration is going to look like for that, the software has not quite caught up. There are a lot of schools in the US that have pushed the one to one, take home devices for students but are now coming back to the in-class model using specialized devices for different subjects. It’s a really interesting model and we are trying to make sure we have the right devices for whatever their goals are going forwards.

The Microsoft stand at Bett 2018 was the largest in the cavernous ExCel hall and packed full of innovative education projects and technology but if we need an example of how to revolutionise education and embed technology in our schools then Microsoft’s Hacking STEM project was the best demonstration at the show this year. Hacking STEM is a partnership between the Education Workshop, Hack for Good and the Microsoft Garage and reinvents what K-12 lessons can be, proving EdTech is not just about glueing kids to screens but creatively merging technology with hands-on skills in practical lessons that blur the lines between traditional subjects and pull together many of a child’s abilities while encouraging collaboration.

Many schools in the US are now coming back to the in-class model using specialized devices for different subjects
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Hacking STEM was originally prototyped by the Education Workshop as a Hack For Good during Microsoft’s 2016 //Oneweek Hackathon. Designed to run on inexpensive Windows 10 laptops in the $300 range, it uses a ‘hacked’ version of Excel to bring to life the fundamentals of science and open the emerging world of IOT to the classroom and help teachers meet the NGSS and ISTE standards for data science.

Our goal is to support teachers building inquiry and project-based activities that embed computational and design thinking into existing middle school curriculum. We want to democratize STEM for learners and demonstrate how all schools can provide affordable opportunities to bring ‘making’ and 21st century technical skills to the classroom. Microsoft Education Workshop

Tech Trends tested out three innovative lesson demos that covered earthquake science and shake-proof architecture, robotics, building machines that emulate human anatomy and using the Pythagorean theorem to explore and measure topography in 2D/3D space. Yes, you read that right, but that is what these lessons prove, complex maths, science, technology and engineering can be taught in fun and accessible ways if we open our minds and adjust our preconceptions about how we teach and what kids are capable of. These lessons were truly inspiring and almost made me want to teach, almost. Hell, they made me want to learn!

Hacking STEM is designed to run on inexpensive Windows 10 laptops in the $300 range and uses a hacked version of Excel to bring to life the fundamentals of science
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On the Hacking STEM site, you will find bite-sized, hands-on, teacher-tested projects and activities that use everyday materials to make STEM affordable, accessible, and fun
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The Pythagorean lesson involves kids acting as environmental surveyors and engineers, they build measuring tools with cardboard or LEGO bricks to create and visualize an initial transportation plan for the development of an island national park in Excel. LEGO Education partnered with Microsoft, on this, supplying their Simple & Powered Machines Sets, out of which kids build the tools and 3D maps needed for the lesson. The goal is to build an efficient transportation plan that minimizes the environmental impact on the island. They then bring their National Park to life by adding topographic elements in Paint 3D which are then translated into Augmented Reality.

We can’t praise these incredible lessons enough, and strongly recommend you take a look, whether you are a teacher or just keen to get your kids more engaged with STEM at home. On the Hacking STEM site, you will find bite-sized, hands-on, teacher-tested projects and activities that use everyday materials to make STEM affordable, accessible, and fun. I had a blast with them and can only envy any child who is lucky enough to learn in a school that truly appreciates and embraces the possibilities demonstrated here.

Meanwhile, Dell, are also staying on the cutting edge of affordable technology with their new 5000 series Chromebooks, producing products that ensure schools can afford to provide children with the basic technology they need while looking forwards and developing solutions for kids to get involved with next generation of EdTech such as AR and VR immersive technologies.

The challenge, concludes Lyons, is that there is no standard set of applications schools use: “in AR and VR we are partnering heavilly with Microsoft, on both the hardware design and software design, Intel is also involved in that process. I think we are within a year at least of actually delivering this technology to the education market.”

These lessons prove that complex subjects can be taught in fun and accessible ways
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Dell’s new research suggests parents have the will and the power to influence the direction schools take in our technological future and these inspiring lessons will truly open your eyes to what is possible and how achievable it is. If politicians, state funding bodies and academic institutions can be won over by these concepts, it would be a huge step towards future-proofing our children’s education.

Dell’s new research suggests parents have the will and the power to influence the direction schools take in our technological future
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Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Education + Technology = The Future appeared first on Tech Trends.

What will be the biggest and most disruptive technology trends of 2018? We talk to industry experts to find out.

Bias-check will become the new spell-check
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Expanding the Immersive Spectrum

We expect 2018 to be a big year for the development and roll-out of second generation hardware for VR/AR such as the Oculus Go and Magic Leap’s Mixed Reality headset – set to be better, lighter and cheaper than ever before,” says Aurelien Simon, Head of Immersive, Digital Catapult.

Just as importantly, however, there will also be increased buy-in from the creative industries in terms of immersive content production: “We’ve seen huge strides in creative content over 2017 and I expect this push for quality over quantity to continue next year. Big production studios are likely to increase their interest and presence in the VR space, while VR games production looks to take a step forward with hotly anticipated games like Doom and Fallout 4 released in VR.”

Trisa Thompson, Chief Responsibility Officer at Dell Technologies also believes that we’ll be donning our AR headsets in 2018 as the technology becomes ubiquitous and increasingly integrates with our daily routines.

“It’s happening in pockets today. But over the next year, VR and AR will cogently bring world issues into our personal reality. Time, money, and geography will no longer be inhibitors to experiencing a different environment, community or perspective.”

Global analyst firm CCS Insight says these technologies are likely to blur and become different dimensions of the “extended reality” spectrum, and the hardware releases of 2018 will reflect that trend: “We expect to see many early examples of augmented reality glasses but also several stand-alone virtual reality headsets.”

2018 will be a big year for the development and roll-out of second-generation hardware for VR and AR
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The Next Era of Human-Machine Partnership report published by Dell and the Institute for the Future (IFTF) also predicts that immersive technologies will increasingly be used to counterbalance our inherent human prejudices. ‘Bias check,’ according to Brian Reaves, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Dell, will become the next spell check as we’ll start applying VR in job interview settings to remove identifying traits, leveraging machine learning and AI to indicate key points of discrimination and program positive bias into our processes.

Immersive technologies will increasingly be used to counterbalance our inherent human prejudices
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Data-Centric Society

According to Nesta’s latest survey, 39 percent of adults say they do not mind sharing their personal information with companies, but 60 percent say they are frustrated by how much of their information has become public. 76 percent of adults around the world say they find it creepy when companies know too much about them.

“Big Data claims to be able to interpret our behaviours, which in theory should help consumers. But with Big Data can come Big Bias, and once personal information is relinquished, all consumers can do is hope companies use it responsibly,” they conclude.

Yet data experts predict that 2018 will mark the year when data starts to become a powerful tool for consumers, as regulators catch up with the data revolution and citizens are put in charge of their data. Accenture’s Fjord Trends 2018 also outlines how technologies such as Blockchain will potentially play a part in creating greater data transparency.

39 percent of adults say they do not mind sharing their personal information with companies, but 60 percent are frustrated by how much of that information becomes public
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In its latest report, the National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) indicates that data is a vital component for innovation and stresses the importance of building a broader data infrastructure and managing it responsibly for the greater good.

“Greater access to open data enables greater innovation,” according to the Open Data Institute (ODI) which predicts that over time we will see data helping to create ever greater social and economic value in sectors such as public services, retail and banking.

Vicki Cantrell, Retail Transformation Officer, at Aptos says that retailers will need to leverage data to become more customer-centric. “Analysis tools that deliver actionable data and enable organisations to correctly respond to changing conditions with actionable and repeatable processes at the point of service – whether in-store or online – will be key,” she says.

Banks are recognizing the value of collaboration and outsourcing risk solutions to companies such as Verifi to prevent fraud and improve customer experience
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According to Market Intelligence agency IDC, banks are also increasingly partnering with financial technology companies via open APIs, driven partly by new banking regulations such as PSD2, which involve sharing of customer data.

Retailers will need to leverage data to become more customer-centric
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In 2018 the EU will also begin to fine midmarket firms that violate General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR). According to Bill Weber, Principal Security Strategist at eSentire, with the influx of data breaches over the past two years, businesses will have to take the necessary steps to meet the increasing number of cybersecurity requirements set forth by regulatory bodies.

“Regulators are encouraging open banking initiatives, and banks are having to open up their systems via APIs to third parties in providing access to account information and to initiate payments,” a report by consulting firm Capgemini concludes, adding that this will increasingly facilitate collaboration between banks and FinTech companies bringing innovation to industry.

Banks, the report concludes, have a burning need to innovate in this fast-evolving landscape, but have traditionally not been very successful in fostering digital innovation through in-house efforts.

With the influx of data breaches over the past two years, businesses will have to take steps to meet increased cybersecurity requirements set by regulatory bodies
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Matthew Katz, CEO of Verifi – a FinTech company providing payment and risk management solutions to banks and merchants – agrees that factors such as the regulatory impacts of PSD2 and strong customer authentication put an increased onus on issuers and acquirers to better manage risk. He believes, however, that banks are increasingly recognizing the value of collaboration, and outsourcing those solutions to companies such as Verifi to not only prevent issues such as fraud and chargebacks, but to deliver a better overall customer experience.

Banks need to innovate but have traditionally not been very successful in fostering digital innovation in-house
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Smart Cities and Borderless Living

In 2018, we could also start seeing drones delivering not only parcels, but broader societal benefits
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Smart Mobility and automation have been big trends in 2017 as societies continued to cope with the rising demands of urbanization. This is set to continue in the coming year as 87 percent of consumers believe cities need better transportation options according to a recent survey conducted by Ford.

87 percent of consumers believe cities need better transportation options
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In 2018, we could also start seeing drones delivering not only parcels, but broader societal benefits. A report by innovation foundation Nesta predicts “cities in Britain will make the laws, rules and infrastructure decisions for drones to take off, creating an airborne version of the Highway Code.”

Smart Mobility and automation have been big trends in 2017 as societies continued to cope with the rising demands of urbanization
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Simulation tools will also enable governments to test out their policies in virtual environments before rolling them out in the real world according to Nesta’s report, which outlines a broader trend towards borderless identity and citizenship.

“We will see the rise of experiments in e-Residency as governments begin to make the nation state virtual. Citizens may be able to choose to educate their children in Finland, access healthcare from South Korea and run businesses in New Zealand, without leaving the comfort of their homes.”

IIoT and the Next Industrial Revolution

As digital fades from being stand-alone to being embedded in our physical world, our relationships with everything around us will be redefined
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In November 2017 the UK government concluded a review addressing how the country could leverage innovation to revitalise business and industry. It outlined how emergent technologies like IoT, Machine Learning and AI have made the transition away from being hypothesized innovations to practical solutions across a broad range of sectors.

“The next step for manufacturers will be to interconnect every step of the manufacturing process to create seamless and more efficient systems by utilising IoT technology to sharpen their competitive edge and better meet customer demands,” explains Richard Bradbury, UK&I Managing Director at Hitachi Vantara.

This trend is broadly defined under the umbrella of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) or Industry 4.0 and its transformative potential for the global economy and society is just as great – if not greater – than that of previous industrial revolutions. Definitely one to watch in 2018.

The transformative potential of Industry 4.0 for the global economy and society is just as great – if not greater – than that of previous industrial revolutions
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Symbiotic Tech

“The more our devices and voice-assistants are ingrained in our daily lives, the more we will turn to them as our moral compass — for advice. As our technology blends into our habits and is able to read and learn our emotions, fears and anxieties, it will tell us to stop wasting less food or remind us to call mom more often. We can expect to see a rise of people objecting to the moral judgments imposed by the likes of Alexa,” reads the Sparks&Honey 2018 Trends Brief, which goes even further, predicting that we’ll soon connect our bodies using technology in increasingly visceral ways.

“We’ve grown comfortable enough with the pervasive use of technology to let it become part of us via implants, such as bio-tattoos or microchip implants for banking and biometrics. Elon Musk’s Neuralink is on a mission to connect our brains to the cloud and Emily Borghard is now recognized as one of the world’s first true cyborgs, thanks to a Neuropace chip implanted in her brain,” it concludes

The more our devices and voice-assistants are ingrained in our daily lives, the more we will turn to them as our moral compass
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“As digital fades from being stand-alone to being embedded in our physical world, our relationships with everything around us will be redefined,” agrees Baiju Shah, global co-lead, Fjord and managing director, Accenture Interactive.

Nesta’s research also backs up this view, pointing to the fact that AI is already showing impressive healthcare capabilities such as diagnosing Parkinson’s via audio recordings and cancer via molecules in breath. It predicts that in 2018 one or more of the major technology companies will buy a healthcare provider to turbocharge their efforts in that space. “In combination with new forms of facial recognition, AI is being trained to read minds and moods with increasing accuracy,” is says, adding that we will increasingly see it being used to predict and manage both physical and mental health outcomes.

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with immersive technologies.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Looking Forward to 2018 Tech Trends appeared first on Tech Trends.

The global immersive industry is set to hit $162bn by 2020. 

A report by research firm CCS Insight forecasts that 16 million Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) devices will be shipped in 2017, which translates into a year-on-year growth of 47 percent. The market value of devices sold into the channel is currently estimated to be $1.6 billion but is expected to grow nearly tenfold to $11.9 Billion and 99 Million Devices sold in 2021.

Smartphone-based VR and AR devices are expected to account for the majority of those sales (13 million units) due to their lower cost and wider availability, with the remaining 3 million distributed among the three major players currently dominating the dedicated VR space, namely Facebook (Oculus), HTC (Vive) and Sony (PlayStation VR).

Yet CCS Insight analyst George Jijiashvili notes that although the expected growth is encouraging, there have been snags along the way, and all three manufacturers have opted to cut down their prices in order to boost sales and gain greater market share.

In the upcoming fourth quarter, however, the firm expects to see the impact of the new Microsoft-powered Windows Mixed Reality headsets to be felt. The HMDs which will start becoming available this month and are being manufactured in partnership with Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung should not only provide a boost to the end of year sales in 2017 but also lay the foundation for strong growth in 2018.

VR shows more potential in the Chinese market since its forecast in 2016
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According to the forecast, VR is showing considerably more potential in the Chinese market since its forecast update in 2016. This is a result of growing interest in the technology from large Chinese companies such as Alibaba, which has offered shopping by VR, and Tencent, which is expected to launch its own VR headset.

CCS Insights are also optimistic about the potential of Augmented Reality
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CCS Insights are also optimistic about the potential of Augmented Reality, boosted by commitment to the technology on iPhones through its ARKit platform and the advent of Google’s ARCore to Android smartphones.

The new Microsoft-powered Windows Mixed Reality headsets are expected to have an impact
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Digital Catapult announced a new Immersive Lab in Brighton
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This continued optimism in the growth of the immersive industry sector is also reflected in the expansion of creative and networking spaces designed to foster entrepreneurship initiatives in the area.

Digital Catapult, for example, recently announced that it was opening a brand new Immersive Lab in Brighton to further support what it describes as the UK’s “burgeoning immersive community” following the successful launch of its London Lab which hosted over 80 events, meet-ups and demos and welcomed over 1100 attendees through its doors since opening earlier this year.

The lab will be a meet-up point for companies to collaborate
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The move is part of efforts to propel the UK to take a “bigger slice of this pie” in a market still dominated by the US, which holds 75% market share in comparison to the UK’s 5% as highlighted in Sir Peter Bazalgette’ review recently.

“The immersive labs are part of Digital Catapult’s wider strategy to develop the best ecosystem for AR, VR and MR developers to create and experiment with the next generation of immersive content. The lab will be available to businesses of any size, alongside researchers and investors, to demonstrate, innovate, test and experience the latest immersive technology and content.”

Brighton is one of the biggest immersive hubs due to its strong background in gaming, film and software and hardware development, with many companies already working in these fields according to Phil Jones, Lead at Digital Catapult in Brighton.

“The opening of the Immersive Lab here is part of the wider strategy to bring these organisations together and encourage their collaboration to accelerate the immersive industry’s growth both regionally and nationally,” he explains.

The lab will be a meet-up point for companies of all sizes and individuals to collaborate and exchange ideas and expertise. Digital Catapult is developing a network of hubs nationwide to create the best environment for the immersive community to collaborate. In each lab, the gaming, filmmakers and software developers will have access to the latest equipment for testing, unlocking new types of content and business opportunities. The labs are meant to be a place to showcase emerging content, meet potential investors, collaborate with researchers and trial new proof of concepts.

The UK already has a rich heritage in sectors where immersive technologies are likely to have the largest and most immediate impact; the creative industries manufacturing and health. So, establishing immersive labs in key regions across the country like this one in Brighton will further benefit the development of the industry,” says Aurelian Simon, Head of Immersive at Digital Catapult, adding that the UK already has a significant presence in the global fast-growing immersive market – currently valued at $5.4 billion – and is home to the largest number of up and coming VR companies in Europe.

As the CCS Insight report emphasized, content is key in achieving and maintaining steady market growth in the immersive space, and companies like Digital Catapult are crucial in fostering this broader ecosystem:

“The growing availability of 360-degree material is underlined by Facebook’s recent revelation that it now hosts 70 million 360-degree photos and 1 million 360-degree videos, and that the videos have generated 580 million views,” says Jijiashvil. But other materials including sports, film, TV and pornography, are now playing a bigger role in that growth.

Tech Trends offers comprehensive Virtual Reality Consultancy services to support businesses looking to adopt VR/AR/MR technologies into their brand and communications strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Report: Augmented and Virtual Reality Market Growth appeared first on Tech Trends.

And technology can make it so. OK, I’m paraphrasing Isaac Asimov a bit here, but the key idea is that we should enjoy learning, and want to carry on doing it for as long as we’re able to.

His vision was for a world where knowledge was widely available and so people could personalise their own learning paths, and educate themselves on all the things they were interested in.

Technology is enabling the creation of open learning environments that will eventually replace the idea of a traditional classroom
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In this article I reflect on some of the ideas that came up in a recent EdTech panel I attended which was hosted by Dell. The principles that emerged – such as empowering students in order to up their engagement with the learning process – chime very much with Mr Asimov’s futurist insights.

Technology is enabling the creation of open learning environments that will eventually replace the idea of a traditional classroom, and this will be significantly enhanced as virtual and augmented reality become more pervasive. Educators are largely embracing these changes, which bring higher levels of engagement and richer learning experiences to students. Learning — including vital digital skills such as coding — should be regarded as an enjoyable pursuit that is expected to continue throughout adult life, not as something we’re “finished with” as soon as we leave school.

The flipside of having intuitive technologies and invisible digital infrastructure is that the next generation might be proficient in using it, yet lack the digital skills required to make it
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Those were some of the key takeaways from a recent Technology in Education round table hosted by Dell at the iconic Gherkin building in London. The event brought together technology and education experts and was moderated by Matt Britland, ICT Director at Lady Eleanor Holles School, who led the discussion around how we can best incorporate existing and emerging technologies into the curriculum, supporting teachers and preparing students for a world where having a dynamic digital skill set will become even more essential.

“It’s not just about using technology, but understanding the reason why you’re using a particular technology. Once you get buy-in from parents and teachers as well as students, that’s when you have a successful integration of technology in the learning process,” says Britland drawing from his own personal experience of rethinking the systems in his school to ensure they could cope with being “bombarded” with over 4000 devices connected to the network, for example.

It all boils down to building engagement, and in practice this translates into blurring the boundaries between work and play
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“This type of digital infrastructure needs to be robust, scalable, flexible, and, above all, invisible,” says John Bailey, an education expert from Dell. “You don’t think about the fact you have running water, electricity or heating. It’s ubiquitous, a part of life. In the same way, we shouldn’t’ need to think about the infrastructure we use to access digital resources.”

Universally implementing such infrastructure is, of course, an enormous challenge, as not all schools have the internal expertise and resources to devise and deploy a comprehensive digital strategy. So there is a role for commercial partners in supporting this transition, but also a need for governments to prioritize and enable investment in this area at a broader policy level, so that we don’t end up creating a two-tier system where some schools can afford to become much more digitally advanced than others.

The flipside of having intuitive technologies and invisible digital infrastructure is that the next generation might be proficient in using technology, yet lack the core digital skills required to understand what makes that technology work.

“We’re teaching HTML and Python and a website called Code Adventures where they earn points, badges, etc.” says Britland. “In parents’ evenings they want to know what technology the students are using, they want to know that their daughter is coding.”

There are also many successful start-ups coming up with creative hackable toys that teach children principles of electronics, robotics and coding through play and gaming such as Kitronik, Sphero, Raspberry Pi, Technology Will Save Us and many others. And the advent of Virtual Reality will only bring with it more opportunities for teachers and students to experience technology in new ways, and to “get their hands dirty,” so to speak.

“When we talk about VR, we talk about those experiences,” agrees Jaime Donally.

Instructional Technology Coordinator and founder of edcamp Global. “And I love that.” However, once you have a class set of cardboards in the classroom, there is a lot more that can be done with that: “The next step, of course, is our kids being the creators of those experiences”

Tools like CoSpaces promise to make that process of generating content in Virtual Reality easy by offering a 3D visualization tool that allows users to select environments from a library, adding and adjusting various elements to create a personalized experience.

Once you get buy-in from parents and teachers and students, you have a successful integration of technology in the learning process
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It all boils down to building engagement, and in practice this translates into blurring the boundaries between work and play, making full use of tolls such as gamification so that students are constantly empowered to take responsibility and pride in their own learning, and to see it as a continuous process that doesn’t necessarily begin or end at the school gates. As David Whelan recently said when unveiling his Engage VR Education platform, we are much more likely to retain information if we create an emotional connection with that learning experience.

“That’s sometimes a difficult shift for schools to make, because we’re used to looking at things a certain way,” says Matt Britland, “but we want to instill a passion for learning in our students, and that doesn’t just come from learning what we tell them to learn, it’s about them going out and exploring, finding out things for themselves.”

This is, in fact, the direction that futurist Isaac Asimov predicted we would take. I find it fascinating to listen to old interviews — dating from a time way before the internet, when the idea of having a computer in one’s home seemed as outlandish as the plot of one his science fiction books — as he accurately predicts trends such as personalized learning, and how the symbiosis between technology and education will develop and democratize learning for the masses.

We should enjoy learning, and want to carry on doing it for as long as we're able to
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“Nowadays what people call learning is forced on you and everyone is forced to learn the same thing on the same day at the same speed, in class. For some it goes too fast, for some too slow, for some in the wrong direction. It seems to me that it’s through this machine that for the first time we’ll be able to have a 1:1 relationship between information source and information consumer.”

In the old days, he explains to his bewildered interviewer, you had tutors teaching children, and they would adapt their teaching to the tastes and abilities of each student. Few could afford this, however, so most children remained uneducated. When educating the masses later became a recognized necessity, the only way this could be achieved was through having one teacher for many students, and a curriculum to organize their learning. So you ended up with either a one-to-one relationship for the few, or a one-to-many relationship for the many. Through technology, however, we can finally enable a one-to-one relationship in the form of access to the gathered knowledge of the human species. And this, he emphasized, would not just benefit the young.

“People don’t stop what they enjoy doing just because they reach a certain age. They don’t stop having sex just because they turn 40, they keep it up as long as they can if they enjoy it. The trouble with learning is that most people don’t enjoy it because of the circumstances. Make it possible for people to enjoy learning and they’ll keep it up.”

I find that his outlook chimed with that of the panel, where the picture that emerges for the future of education is one where technology enables learning for everyone, regardless of their age, wealth, location, gender, race or any other factor. And one where everyone has quite a bit of fun in the process.

This article was originally published on IDG Connect

Imagining the Future of #EdTech https://t.co/oF2a3nJ62o @idgconnect @CIOonline @Dell @cospaces_io @GoogleForEdu #TechTrends #VR pic.twitter.com/2sueECrApA

— Alice Bonasio (@alicebonasio) October 10, 2016

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Learning Should Be as Fun as Sex appeared first on Tech Trends.